Category: Media

Right-wing populists such as Nigel Farage, Katie Hopkins, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson tend to use the same Modus Operandi/Tactics to raise their profiles and generate publicity . in this post I’ll analyse these tactics, why they’re effective and what YOU can do to derail them.

Calculated outrage lies at the heart of this method; it uses comments calculated to offend certain groups who generally lie outside the right-wing tabloid reading white demographic(i.e. think Sun/Mail reader). Minority groups such as Scousers, Muslims and fat women being examples of the targets chosen.Here are a few examples of these.Boris Johnson claimed Liverpool is a self-pity city.Characteristically Katie Hopkins took things too far with her ‘Final Solution’ tweet; the aim is to generate social media outrage, column inches and backlinks not lose your job. Nigel Farage is the master of this tactic (in the UK at least)examples being linking Brendan Cox with extremism and a UKIP poster which deliberately had overtones of a past Nazi campaign. Next, I’ll examine how and why this tactic is so useful.

How the method works

Once the ‘outspoken’ pundit or demagogue has started to make a name for his or herself, the right-wing press will eagerly pounce upon future utterances. So far so obvious, but the clever part is the liberal press will nearly always provide a backlash ‘ has Farage gone too far this time?’ Style articles and handwringing, the Liberal press is quite good at this, especially The Guardian.in addition to this outraged left-wingers and liberals will discuss and share articles featuring the offenders’ ad nauseam. In effect advertising the views of their political opponents. Likewise creating memes of these offenders is increasing the profile of this figure they probably intensely dislike, which neatly brings us to what can YOU do about it?

You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.

Fortunately, the solution to this tactic is quite simple and requires no great effort on your part.Don’t link to any articles or media outlets which mention the would-be demagogue or do anything to increase their impact or reach.Deny them the oxygen of publicity, reducing them to spluttering impotence. Where possible, you should delete tweets and posts which mention the offender’s names. The way to view it is every time the demagogue is trending the left have failed.Do your bit! think before you link.